Semlor

So, my dear friends, it is time for the special day, Fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday), tomorrow and of course I want to give you my recipe of these lovely pastries we eat like crazy here in Sweden this time of year: Cardamom wheat buns filled with almond paste and whipped cream!
The recipe for the buns is very easy, it takes quite some time to let the buns raise but they will be worth the wait! The filling is quickly managed, especially if you use ready almond paste from the store like I did. However, if you don't have the possibility to buy almond paste, I will give you a recipe for it in this post too.

Cardamom buns filled with whipped cream and almond paste

Buns
640 grams flour
112 grams sugar
112 grams room temperatured butter
15 grams powdered cardamom
3 grams salt
280 grams milk
1/2 egg
25 grams fresh yeast

Filling
Whipped cream 
Almond paste 

Almond Paste
This recipe gives 100 grams almond paste
75 grams of almonds
2 bitter almonds
3 deciliter icing sugar
1,5 tablespoon water

1. Boild the almonds and the bitter almonds in water a minute until the shells will begin to loosen.Rinse the almonds with cold water and remove the shells.
2. Dry the almonds.
3. Mix the almonds together with sugar in a food processor until you get a flour.
4. Add water and mix until it gets a smooth texture.


Garnish
Sieved icing sugar

1. Put all the ingredients in room temperature for a couple of hours before baking.
2. Use a baking machine and just put all the ingredients into the bowl without heating or sifting and led the machine work the dough for about 20 minutes on low speed. 
3. When the dough is ready you will be able to take a piece of dough between your hands and make a thin membrane that will not crack. If you are kneading my hand you will have to knead for about 40 minutes.
4. Without letting the dough raise you make buns (60 grams each) of it and put them on a baking tray. Make sure you give them space so they will not raise into eachother.
5. Boil water and put the pan with the water in the bottom of your cold oven. Put the trays with the buns. The water will evaporate and it will me warm and moist into the oven while the buns raise. Let the buns raise to double size, it took about 90 minutes for me.
6. Get the trays out of the oven and put the oven to 200 Celcius.
7. When the oven is heated, bake the buns for about 5 minutes until the buns have a nice golden color.
8. Let the buns cool on a grid.
9. Whip the cream until the texture is good enough to pipe it.
10. Mix the ready made almond paste with a spoon of water and use a fork to make the texture smooth.
11. Cut off the top of the buns so you get a little hat.
12. Put the almond paste on the cut surface and this is a matter of taste how much you want to put on.
13. Now it is time to pipe the cream on top of the almond paste. Try to cover on the sides som the almond paste doesn't show.
14. Put the little hat on top and sift powdered sugar over.